Lead is an element, number 82 on the periodic table.
Decayed lead points on an impulse pack
Old 23rd century type impulse packs (part of the impulse engines) were insulated with an element that could decay to lead. When a ship had been through trauma it was best to check the points of the packs, because if they had decayed, when activated they could take out the entire impulse deck.
After encountering the galactic barrier, Lee Kelso checked the impulse engines and did not notice that the damaged points on the impulse pack had "about decayed to lead." (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")
The surface temperature of the innermost planet of system L-374, of the two planets that survived the planet killer's attack, was that of molten lead. (TOS: "The Doomsday Machine")
In 2268, Spock reasoned that to hide from a sensor scan, the dikironium cloud creature would have to have been able to change its molecular structure, likening the process to gold changing itself to lead or wood. (TOS: "Obsession")
Later that year, after multiple phaser strikes placed a strain upon the USS Enterprise's warp engines, Montgomery Scott complained that Spock wouldn’t be satisfied until the engineering panels were a puddle of lead. (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")
In 2269, the tunnel walls on Phylos were found to be six hundred times denser than lead. (TAS: "The Infinite Vulcan")
In 2368, a fatigued Geordi La Forge claimed to Hannah Bates that his eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached. (TNG: "The Masterpiece Society")
The soil of a planet in the Gamma Quadrant surveyed by Nog and Jake Sisko in 2370 contained lead, traces of which were found in nearby water. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar")
In 2371, Crewman Henley remarked that her legs felt "like lead pipes" even before Tuvok made her and other Maquis members of the USS Voyager crew run ten kilometers. (VOY: "Learning Curve")
Lead was mentioned in the final draft script of TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver" (dated 3 May 1966), as that script referred to the Fesarius as being "in the shape of a round cluster of [...] lead shot." This allusion was written out of the teleplay by the time a second revised final draft of the script (dated 20 May 1966) was issued.
External links[]
- Lead at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
- Lead at Wikipedia